My Christmas gift for 2022

For Christmas this past year I received from my kids an art print I have been eyeing for at least a year. Produced by The Automobilist, the title is “Piggyback – Porsche 917K – 24 Hours of Le Mans – 1971”. In the image are three Porsche 917s. Count Gregorio Rossi di Montelera had purchased the 1970 Salzburg team cars and re-liveried them. The Martini car No. 22 (Chassis 917-053) driven by the team of Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep, took 1^st place at 397 laps. The J. W. Automotive team was favored to win, with a strong driver lineup and four victories prior to this race. But the Gulf car No. 19 (Chassis 917-026/031), piloted by Richard Attwood (who won in 1970) and Herbert Müller, had to settle for 2nd at 395 laps. The winning car set a new record, which stood until Audi’s win in 2010.

Despite the record-setting pace and top two finishes, these Gulf and Martini cars did not garner the press that the No. 23 car did. Chassis 917/20-001 was built as a test-bed for future Can-Am parts and aerodynamic low-drag concepts. Shorter and much wider than the 917K, it was designed and tested by Robert Choulet and the SERA wind tunnel, after their other work on the 917. Nicknamed “Pink Pig”, it was driven by Reinhold Joest and Willi Kauhsen. Martini, who had a 917L in a wild psychedelic paint job in 1970, had the wide car painted pink and decorated with meat carving lines like you might see at a butcher, with the cuts of meat written on the bodywork. During the race (and following a cooling fan repair) the No. 23 car had moved back up to third. Joest found he had no brakes approaching Arnage. He used the escape road and crashed in the wee hours of the morning, resulting in a DNF.

As a brand, Porsche dominated Le Mans that year representing more than half of the entries and taking 10 of the 13 finishes, so it’s odd that one of their failures dominated the headlines.

The Automobilist takes a unique approach to automotive art, combining photography and computer graphics to recreate moments in motor history from a different perspective. An average of 1000 hours is devoted to a single vehicle. A 3D image may involve two to three months, with a team of 8 individuals, and numerous cast and crew members. My print is a limited issue of 150, and two larger editions are already sold out.  Check out these images from their website, which gives an idea of the process and the lengths gone to for complete accuracy.

Note the subtle muted tones of dusk at “Les Hundieres”, with the last hints of color on the cars showing through the dim light. The details on the cars are excellent, including the race grime collected. The surroundings are just slightly out-of-focus, accentuating the speed of the cars. The distant sunset competes with the piercing yellow-white of the Marchal headlamps.

As you might guess, I have 1:43 scale models of all the cars. The 1^st and 2^nd place cars are by Spark, while the Pink Pig is a Minichamps model that came in unique packaging back in 2001.